Thank you for the welcome! Been a fan since 2002, but new to these boards. I am glad I found a place where the knowledge of my team is comparable and in most cases superior to my own. HT.com is torture, and BRB is not the message board format like I like. I need a greenie to start me off here soon! See yall around!

If Yates was "all that" he should have lifted the level of play of those "scrubs" around him during those P/S games. He didn't. And when you think about it, our 2nd team isn't all that bad... Ben Tate/Justin Forsett @ RB, Jean & KMart (sometimes) at WR, Garrett Graham @ TE... dude had some weapons... didn't seem to use them properly. One full year plus a full set of OTAs/training camp sessions in our system AND, as some have pointed out, four years of college ball in a similar system. Yet no appreciable progress this preseason. Tex is right, if the light doesn't come on soon, Yates is staring at being catagorized as a career backup.

No way I pick him over Schaub for this season.

And the Yates vs. Luck comparison cannot be for one season only, both are too young. They would represent the future. So if Schaub was hurt such that we had to make that choice, it would be Luck in a landslide.

Yeah, what is this whole "experience" angle here that people are trying to use with Yates? Lol! Yates played in a hand full of games as a rookie only because he was pulled up there after two QB's went down. All Yates did the majority of the time was hand the ball off and make check down passes and was told not to screw it up. The Texans became a one dimensional team with no passing threat at all under Yates. The minute Yates was asked to beat a team with his arm in a high stakes game in the post season he threw a ton of picks. And apparently people didn't pay much attention to the guy in pre season this year, because he looked just as awful as the 6th round pick he is.

Luck already looks like a top 15 QB if you ask me. Sure he'll have some growing pains, but this kid looks light years ahead of most rookie QB's even on a bad team. He'll have a learning curve, but it will be a small one, and Luck is already making a ton of impressive plays. To even remotely act like Yates would be a better option then Luck on a great team like the Texans right now is laughable. Luck's arm is fantastic and he can improvise really well. I hate that we're going to have to deal with that guy for the next 15 years.

You guys are wrong about Yates. I don't know if he ever becomes a good starting qb, but his play off experience is pretty big.

Also, he did not just hand the ball off and check down. Yates went down the field quite a bit...maybe more than he should have.

As far as pre season...he may have had weapons to throw to, but you guys seem to have selective memory. The back up o lines (and even the starting line at times) were porous. Extremely porous.

And actually overall he wasn't terrible. Was he as good as schaub? No. Not close. But I think you guys are being too harsh on tj. He does a lot of good things.

How big is his playoff experiance really? He threw 1td 3ints and had a 50% comp rate. I'd say the experiance doesn't mean much given his lack of consistant in game time. Fwiw in the preseason he may have been in with our seconds but it wasn't like he was going against firsts

Luck already looks like a top 15 QB if you ask me. Sure he'll have some growing pains, but this kid looks light years ahead of most rookie QB's even on a bad team. He'll have a learning curve, but it will be a small one, and Luck is already making a ton of impressive plays. To even remotely act like Yates would be a better option then Luck on a great team like the Texans right now is laughable. Luck's arm is fantastic and he can improvise really well. I hate that we're going to have to deal with that guy for the next 15 years.

True, his arm is good, really good.
True, he can improvise very well.
True, he's ahead of many rookie QBs (but to me, he's behind RG III and Wilson).

However, I disagree that he already looks like a top 15 QB.

Forget about his first game.
In his second game, he barely escaped an INT throwing into double coverage.
He then took a 22-yd sack that gave the Vikings enough field position to tie the score.

The "come-back" included 2 throws of roughly 20 yards each into void of coverage, just enough for a 53-yd FG.

This is against a defense that doesn't have enough between the front 7 and the back 4 (or 6 and 5 in a nickle package).

Yes, Luck did enough as a rookie in his second game to show that he has a very good chance to be good in the long run, but top 15 this year, nah, I kinda doubt it. I wonder what kind of criteria is set for this kind of evaluation to start with.

And let's not forget that Luck also had 3 years in the WCO; he's no stranger to it.
The Colts even brought in his teammate Fleener to help in the continuity of the system.

I'm not sure I was on the Yates Train but I did state on occasion that I thought he "would surprise some folks" and he did. He got us a win in the playoffs.

That said I agree with several other posters who've stated that he didn't look as crisp and sharp this preseason as he did in the two Cinncy games. Then there's the 'deer in the headlights' showing we got against the Ravens, the best defense he'd faced to date. Ed Reed has done that to way more experienced QBs than just this 5th round rookie. I'm still not ready to say he'll never be more than a lifetime back up. I still believe he has to potential to become a lot better.

I guess this is one of those 'only time will tell' instances. We'll all know about the same time I reckon.

I'm not sure I was on the Yates Train but I did state on occasion that I thought he "would surprise some folks" and he did. He got us a win in the playoffs.

That said I agree with several other posters who've stated that he didn't look as crisp and sharp this preseason as he did in the two Cinncy games. Then there's the 'deer in the headlights' showing we got against the Ravens, the best defense he'd faced to date. Ed Reed has done that to way more experienced QBs than just this 5th round rookie. I'm still not ready to say he'll never be more than a lifetime back up. I still believe he has to potential to become a lot better.

I guess this is one of those 'only time will tell' instances. We'll all know about the same time I reckon.

What QB wouldnt have gotten us that playoff win? He was 11/20 for 159 yards and a TD

We rushed 1.75 times per pass attempt, we gained more yards on the ground than we did through the air, we had 2 rushing TDs, 1 defensive TD, a fg and 3 ints. I think Yates played well enough to not cost us the game which was pretty much the job he was placed with the entire time as a starter. To say he got us a playoff win would be greatly overstating what he did in that game and undercutting what the rest of the team did

There was some talk around here during the lull between the draft and OTAs that Schaub should be put on the PUP list (or traded outright) and Yates was stellar enough start in his place.

Was that you???

No, that was me. And it was only if Schaub wasn't 100% or if there was any fear about Schaub's ability to remain healthy. I was afraid he wouldn't be totally healthy when TC rolled around.

I believe, and still do, that Yates could have game-managed us to a winning record in the first 6 games of the season. We would have lost more games than we will with Schaub but I'd expect us to still end up with a winning record.

What QB wouldnt have gotten us that playoff win? He was 11/20 for 159 yards and a TD

We rushed 1.75 times per pass attempt, we gained more yards on the ground than we did through the air, we had 2 rushing TDs, 1 defensive TD, a fg and 3 ints. I think Yates played well enough to not cost us the game which was pretty much the job he was placed with the entire time as a starter. To say he got us a playoff win would be greatly overstating what he did in that game and undercutting what the rest of the team did

So what if he didn't do it all by himself?

You think David Carr would have gotten the job done for you, fine, go cheer for him, LOL! (just a joke, OK)

And it's not like he's not capable of beating the Bungals.
You must have forgotten how we won the regular season game against them.

Foster was 15-41 for an average 2.7 ypc and he fumbled the ball in the 4th quarter losing 23 yards in the process.
That was the difference between a FG and a TD as Yates took the Texans to just outside the Bengals 15.
And that drive didn't stop short because of Yates either.
On first down, he was pressured directly on the roll out and had to throw the ball away.
Tate then gained one single yard on second down.
D. Brown was beaten by a spin move on third down, forcing Yates to throw another completion.

But that's alright, because Yates was responsible for every single of the 80 yards on the next drive that ended with the winning TD.

Are you sitting here telling me that Yates can't win against the Bengals?

In fact, the only games he lost was the one against the Panthers and the Ravens.

The refs cost us one game and Yates handed Delhome a lead when he left the field in the last game of the season.

So yeah, it's fine that you don't like him, but I do and for good reasons.

You think David Carr would have gotten the job done for you, fine, go cheer for him, LOL! (just a joke, OK)

And it's not like he's not capable of beating the Bungals.
You must have forgotten how we won the regular season game against them.

Foster was 15-41 for an average 2.7 ypc and he fumbled the ball in the 4th quarter losing 23 yards in the process.
That was the difference between a FG and a TD as Yates took the Texans to just outside the Bengals 15.
And that drive didn't stop short because of Yates either.
On first down, he was pressured directly on the roll out and had to throw the ball away.
Tate then gained one single yard on second down.
D. Brown was beaten by a spin move on third down, forcing Yates to throw another completion.

But that's alright, because Yates was responsible for every single of the 80 yards on the next drive that ended with the winning TD.

Are you sitting here telling me that Yates can't win against the Bengals?

In fact, the only games he lost was the one against the Panthers and the Ravens.

The refs cost us one game and Yates handed Delhome a lead when he left the field in the last game of the season.

So yeah, it's fine that you don't like him, but I do and for good reasons.

Yates didnt get us a playoff win that was my point. Yates did pull together a final drive that won the game, congrats there. He did get the help of a PI call that kept the drive alive on a 3 and 10 to JJ. If you are going to bag on foster for his fumble why not include Yates fumble and int? Yates fumble gave up 3 points as well. Dont cherry pick what happend. The kid pulled it together in that game but he didnt win us the playoff game

Yates, Jones and rackers lost us the game in baltimore though despite what our D was able to do